• Home
  • Houses
    • Outside
    • Celeb, Show & Historic Houses
    • Our Houses
  • Kitchens
    • Blk&Wht Kitchen
    • Blue Kitchen
    • Gray & Neutral Kitchens
    • Green Kitchen
    • Red, Orange, Purple Kitchen
    • White Kitchen
    • Yellow Kitchen
    • Rustic Kitchen
    • Wood Kitchen
    • Modern Kitchen
    • Kitchen & Cabinet Features
    • Sinks & Faucets
  • Decor
    • Accessories
    • Collecting
    • Color
    • Domestic Details
    • Holiday
    • For Kids
    • Laundry-Utility-Mudrooms
    • For Pets
    • Picture Walls & Windows
    • Rooms
    • Rugs
  • Bathrooms
    • Cottage Bath
    • Eclectic Bath
    • Modern Bath
    • Traditional Bath
    • Powder Room
    • Bath Features
  • Cooking
  • Press
  • About
  • Contact

Atticmag

Home Décor & Home Cooking

  • Home
  • Houses
    • Outside
    • Celeb, Show & Historic Houses
    • Our Houses
  • Kitchens
    • Blk&Wht Kitchen
    • Blue Kitchen
    • Gray & Neutral Kitchens
    • Green Kitchen
    • Red, Orange, Purple Kitchen
    • White Kitchen
    • Yellow Kitchen
    • Rustic Kitchen
    • Wood Kitchen
    • Modern Kitchen
    • Kitchen & Cabinet Features
    • Sinks & Faucets
  • Decor
    • Accessories
    • Collecting
    • Color
    • Domestic Details
    • Holiday
    • For Kids
    • Laundry-Utility-Mudrooms
    • For Pets
    • Picture Walls & Windows
    • Rooms
    • Rugs
  • Bathrooms
    • Cottage Bath
    • Eclectic Bath
    • Modern Bath
    • Traditional Bath
    • Powder Room
    • Bath Features
  • Cooking
  • Press
  • About
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Houses / Our Houses / My Laundry Room Goes Dark

My Laundry Room Goes Dark

August 13, 2012 by Jane F 16 Comments

 laundry room with black granite counter and matching beadboard backsplash - AtticmagI know my laundry room is eccentric but I like it and it feels finished.

We’re just past the first year of living in our house full time. Everyone says it takes years to settle in but what’s odd is how some rooms wear well  others just bug me. The powder room has led three lives and I’m not ruling out a fourth. This week, I couldn’t stand the laundry room for one more minute. It’s always had the classic Farrow and Ball Pavilion Gray beadboard and trim (my perfect gray) but something felt wrong. Finally, I realized the backsplash needed to be the same color as the counter: black. Who has a black counter in a laundry room let alone black beadboard? With lint, it’s nuts, right? But my laundry room multitasks as a butler’s pantry, wine room, utility room and mudroom/entry  from the garage. Sometimes, it’s the first room in the house a guest sees. laundry room and mudroom with black granite counter and beadboard backsplash - AtticmagAnd I was stuck with a 14-foot-long absolute-black granite counter that’s been next to bulletproof. Ten years ago there was little choice with only one stone fabricator in 50 miles and it seemed fine with stainless-front Ikea cabinets in a weekend house.

laundry room and mudroom before it was repainted - AtticmagThe laundry room measures 14 x 10 so it’s not as large as I’d like. It houses a lot thought: a sink, utility drawers, wine refrigerator, front-loader washer/dryer, glass front cabinets for dish storage, an open closet, laundry-drying hooks, plus an ancient Elfa wire drawer unit (partly hidden by the closet) topped by a piece of marble from 4 kitchens ago. Here it is with recent changeable taupe wall color (Farrow and Ball Shaded White) the day before I painted. Oh, and notice the big window, which adds up to one heavily used, chopped up room that lacked focus not to mention accessories.
laundry room and mud room with Ikea cabinets before repainting - Atticmag
The wall color has never been right. Early on it was off-white. In her book, The Private House, California designer Rose Tarlow observed that “Eccentricity in design is unique and special only when it comes from within you, sometimes unintentionally, quite often irrationally, and always for the right reasons.” Thank you Ms. Rose.
laundry room and mudroom with gray walls, plus black counter and backsplash after repainting - Atticmag
Once I had the notion of unifying the counter and backsplash color, I found the “right reason.” Then, painting the laundry room walls the same gray as the woodwork became part of my unification strategy, so I tackled that first. Fortunately, I had nearly a gallon of leftover Pavilion Gray Eggshell paint in the basement. I didn’t have any black paint in the house and, while I’d normally use F&B, I grabbed a quart of satin-finish black paint at the hardware store. Fortunately, that matched the sheen of the honed granite.

laundry room - painting the grooves in the beadboard - AtticmagBeadboard is not easy to paint because of the curves and grooves. To get it right, I first went over the “beads” with a detailing brush. Then I painted the flat sections with a first coat, which proved to be quite streaky because the paint was relatively thin (at least compared to F&B which almost has a pudding like quality). I let it dry and painted a second coat, then touched up any spots I’d missed.

laundry room - drop in Elkay sink and Hansgrohe pull out faucet with filtered water dispenser in repainted laundry room - AtticmagAfter I finished the whole job (which included touching up the ceiling which I somehow managed to mark in a couple of places with the gray paint), Mr. AM came to see the results. “Has that always been there?” he asked, pointing to the Michael Graves towel rack over the sink. The answer was “yes” but without the contrast of the dark background the charm of the playful shape had been as invisible as the backsplash itself.

laundry room - finished, repainted laundry room with black beadboard backsplash and art on the wall - AtticmagTwo days later, per Allison’s comment (below) I hung up a movie poster from our apartment home office (which had been in the basement). That went on the far wall and it helps pull attention away from the awkwardly placed window.  The poster looks neater than laundry hanging from a hook (a brief thought) as I have the hanging space for that. Plus, the poster makes the room feel finished, at last.

 Copy and paste link to quick-share this post: http://bit.ly/R85MMv

For more on Jane’s house see My Kitchen Hutch Search & Redo Saga and Cinderella Fireplace

 

Filed Under: Our Houses Tagged With: Atticmag, Farrow and Ball paint, laundry room with black counter, my laundry room goes dark, repainting the laundry room

Comments

  1. Judy says

    August 13, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Great project. I wouldn’t have thought of using the dark paint.

    Reply
  2. Allison says

    August 13, 2012 at 10:09 am

    Looks so much better! I see Mr AM is a lot like Mr Shops when it comes to noticing things. lol

    Did you spray paint your laundry basket? I was going to suggest a large framed poster on the wall. Let me know what kind of hook rack you’re looking for and I’ll keep my eye out too.

    Reply
  3. Jane F @ Atticmag says

    August 13, 2012 at 10:18 am

    Yes, I did spray it a while back. It’s on its last lap but it’s better looking than plastic.

    I had thought of a large poster and we actually have one downstairs that would work size-wise. Art would look better but renders the wall space unusable.

    I also need additional hanging space and there’s about 39 inches on that wall with clearance for the cabinet door. PB had a coat rack with hooks that move but it was too long. Ideally, I’d like hooks that move (though not essential) and aren’t eye-gougingly deep plus something with a bit of decorative value for that sort of thing. Black could work as could vertigris (or it could be paintable)

    Reply
  4. Tricia Rose says

    August 13, 2012 at 12:47 pm

    I love it Jane: it’s SMART.

    Reply
  5. Daniela @frugal ain't cheap says

    August 13, 2012 at 3:37 pm

    never saw the beadboard painted black! I like it!

    Reply
    • Jane F says

      August 13, 2012 at 6:09 pm

      I’ve only seen it in a bathroom we featured: https://www.atticmag.com/?p=15688 but it’s a very different look. I wasn’t really sure about it until I had painted the area behind the sink. But I trusted my instinct, figuring that I bought the paint quickly (when I buy without thinking it’s usually right).

      Reply
  6. Brandi says

    August 13, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Such a great room to do laundry in! I love the beadboard painted black! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

    Reply
  7. Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions says

    August 13, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    It works here, Jane! I know very well about this being an entry into the house that many guests see this area first. I had to keep that in mind when we fixed up our laundry area/mudroom/garage entry. For a small space it serves many purposes, so it makes sense to have it all look cohesive. You’ve got some great counter space here and I’m sure it really comes in handy.

    Reply
  8. Lisa says

    August 13, 2012 at 7:49 pm

    I like it! It looks great. Are you going to paint the glass-paned door black, too? It might look good.

    Reply
    • Jane F says

      August 14, 2012 at 1:36 pm

      Funny you mention the door Lisa, as I had a brief thought about painting the woodwork black in that room but decided it would look too Goth. But not the door as it’s salvage, from the 1930s. We have a dozen of them throughout the house and I spent 3 months scraping them during the reno. But I have a line-up of furniture to paint. And how’s this for a scary amount of paint in one basement?

      Reply
  9. RHome410 says

    August 13, 2012 at 9:18 pm

    The gray was more utilityish and the black is so much sharper and more elegant for the room’s other purposes. Good call.

    Reply
  10. cat_mom says

    August 13, 2012 at 11:42 pm

    I love it! So jealous–my laundry/utility room is such a pit. Could use the Jane F touch….! 🙂

    Reply
  11. mbwife says

    August 20, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    better with the black for sure.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Laundry Room Built Ins | Atticmag | Kitchens, Bathrooms, Interior Design says:
    March 5, 2014 at 1:07 am

    […] I was designing my laundry room I knew I was going with front loaders because my main priority was the longest possible counter for […]

    Reply
  2. Five Laundry Room Features - Atticmag says:
    February 8, 2015 at 12:02 pm

    […] doubled as an entry from the garage, and added a main coat closet for ourselves and guests. In my laundry room I found space for a wine refrigerator on the 14-foot long wall of built in base cabinets. The wine […]

    Reply
  3. black beadboard says:
    May 13, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    […] For more on unusual black beadboard see My Laundry Room Goes Dark. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This blog is kept spam free by WP-SpamFree.

Home Decor

mini two-compartment architectural planter by Vagabond Vintage - via Atticmag

Mini Architectural Planters

September 5, 2018 By Jane F Leave a Comment

linen bed sheets - Italian linen triple hemstich linen bed sheets -Cuddledown via Atticmag

Making Sense of Linen Bed Sheets

May 30, 2018 By Jane F 2 Comments

ready made curtain hack for store bought linen panels - aticmag

Ready-Made Curtain Panels Hack

May 7, 2018 By Jane F 5 Comments

cobalt blue front door - Southern Living via Atticmag

Front Door Blues

May 14, 2017 By Jane F 2 Comments

peony pink - vase of pink peony flowers - Pinterest via Atticmag

Peony Pink Power

April 24, 2017 By Jane F 1 Comment

Recent Comments

  • justin leon on Kitchen Cabinet Pull-Out Ideas
  • Jane on Making Sense of Linen Bed Sheets
  • Sherrie on Unfitted English Kitchens
  • Marilyn on Whimsical Bicycle Vanity
  • ann rattay on Vintage Limoges & Silver Table
Tweets by atticmag

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in